Sick days

As a parent of asthmatic children, I find it very difficult to save up any sick days at work. Since I work for the state of Oklahoma, I get eight hours sick leave for each month. It’s really not bad when you think about it. But then your child comes down with a cold, and you know you’re going to use up at least 16 of those hours in a hurry.

For example, last week, my older daughter and husband had this virus/cold/whatever, but they were both able to continue to go to school and work. By the middle of the week, I had it, too. I actually missed a day of work due to the sinus headache/dizziness, not asthma symptoms. On Friday, Emma coughed once. On Saturday, she coughed three or four times and sniffled a bit. By Sunday, she was having dry coughing spells every two hours. Of course, the dry coughing indicates just irritation or asthma, not an infection…yet. So, my husband took her to the doctor (not our usual pediatrician because he couldn’t get her in) and he started her on cough syrup, Pulmicort (budesonide) and prednisone. He wouldn’t give her antibiotics because she wasn’t actually showing signs of infection…yet.

It always seems to work that way for us. No sign of infection at first, but the illness doesn’t go away like it does for other people. It moves from the nose, down the back of the throat, to the larynx, and on the fourth day, lands in the lungs. Sure enough, Seth took her back to the doctor yesterday and now, she has a rattling, persistent cough and snotty nose. The unusual/interesting thing about this doctor’s diagnosis and treatment was that he didn’t want us to actually start the antibiotics yesterday; he wanted us to wait till later today. I’ve never experienced that before, as we usually want to start the antibiotics ASAP in order to get better more quickly. So, today, I’m home with Emma doing the nebulizer treatments, and waiting until later to start the antibiotics.

Have any of you ever experienced the postponing of the antibiotics once the infection starts? I’m interested in a better explanation.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tracey Gregg Boothby

Tracey Gregg Boothby is a private voice teacher in Guymon, Okla. She lives with her husband and two children in nearby Goodwell, where the dust and allergies roam. Tracey was diagnosed with asthma at age 5.

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